If I can go off on a tangent a bit, I think Bungie did really well with the changes this time around. For one thing they didn't bump enemy Light to 410, surprising everyone. But I also feel like in the Vosiks and especially the Aksis-2 encounter they amped up the fun part rather than just increasing the difficulty or boss health. The best part of both of those fights is the movement and bomb-throwing, and I love that that's what we got more of, not just more adds/majors.

The sigil rewards (the weapons and armor for reaching 30k and 90k) are capped at 335.

The Sigil rewards are definitely higher than 335. Did you mean 365? I ran PoE to help me gear up after the expansion landed.

Do you happen to know if the challenge of Elders weapon/armor drops are capped at 390 or 400?

The sigil rewards (the weapons and armor for reaching 30k and 90k) are capped at 335. If you rank up with Variks, his faction reward will be a weapon that's capped at 390. The end of game drops (consumed ghosts and some exotics) are capped at 335.

http://destiny.bungie.org/forum/index.php?id=123302

Once I'm at 400 light for both PvE and PvP loadouts then I can actually play the game how I want and not have to worry about being handicapped by an arbitrary number.

It's strange because since there is literally no need to be above 390, running normal mode should still be fun. But we are all addicts who like to see meaningless numbers increase, so that is basically a dead raid. Then they'll release challenge mode, and doing the entire hard raid will be looked at as an inconvenience. Oh well, I got my money's worth out of RoI so I'm happy enough. Just wish the raids were more about chasing items instead of numbers.

first group, has worked hard/smart to level up to raid ready light levels by playing A LOT of destiny. second group, has been playing a fair amount but has not quite leveled up enough. third group, has been slowly going through the content and is not up to raid ready levels.

I know I've played way too much the last few weeks to get up to 399 as of today. Doing hard mode for more than 4 hours is just extremely unappealing right now. It's nothing against others, I just don't want to sit there banging my head against a wall for the majority of a day or night. I'm sure others feel the same. Note: that even with people I've raided with a lot, we still suck at the raid.

I think once everyone gets the mechanics worked out then it'll go so much better and pick up games will be much easier all around. It's a fun raid and one I look forward to doing multiple times a week.

It's nothing personal against anyone, but if the majority of the group hasn't run the raid or is not leveled up properly then it's hard to want to devote time to doing those runs right now. Spending so much time doing other stuff (nightfalls, strikes, patrols, grinding for exotics, trials, crucible, archon's forge, etc...) to get leveled up just doesn't leave the time in the week to do much else.

Edit: but not tonight, just got home from vacation and will be hitting the sack early. Tomorrow or Tuesday I'm good!

I think a lack of (new) activities has a hand in this, too.

The new raid is pretty cool, but nobody will want to run the actual raid when challenge modes drop because everyone has mental issues.